


Ink Under My Skin

by QueenOfTheQuill



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: (come on guys it's jester), Gen, Mentions of dicks, Tattoos, around ep 43-ish, jester's artistry cannot be tamed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 11:25:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17527832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfTheQuill/pseuds/QueenOfTheQuill
Summary: Jester can only handle so much time out at sea before she just has to try out her new skill on the other members of her party.





	Ink Under My Skin

**Author's Note:**

> I just finished listening to Episode 43 and if Jester, bored and with the ability and tools to tattoo someone isn't the most terrifying and wonderful combination in Exandria, I don't know what is.

Beau ends up with the most of course.

 

Jester has lots and lots and lots of time on the ship, when she isn’t working to push and pull the water with Caduceus or creating the food that will help them make it to port to pick up more food that doesn’t carry the hint of wet earth and jelly donuts on the back of her tongue. So she decides that she will practice her new skills that Orly taught her.

 

Beau doesn’t need much convincing to sit down for the first tattoo, a replica of Molly’s all seeing eye at the base of her neck. Jester is very proud of how the lines only wobble a very little and she pokes at Beau once or twice for bitching about how much it hurts. Complaints aside, once Jester holds up a few mirrors for Beau to catch a glimpse, the surly monk is back every other day for “maybe just one more thing.”

 

By the time they dock, Jester has covered brown skin in ink many times over. A peacock feather arcs its way down Beau’s left shoulder and back, and an owl wing down her right. The symbol of The Knowing Mistress, which Beau had to sketch for her, sits under her right collarbone and a carefully inked monk staff marches its way down her spine. After several tankards of ale from Nott’s neverending flask, she screwed up the courage and got “leave things better” scrawled on her left forearm in Jester’s messy handwriting. The next day, Jester saw her running her fingers over her wraps and staring out at the horizon, but Fjord distracted her before Jester could ask Beau if she was thinking of when they lost Molly. Maybe Beau got sad sometimes too, about the way things could have been.

 

Surprisingly, it was Caduceus who came to Jester next, in between some of Beau’s pieces.

 

“I used to keep orchids, you know. They were real nice. I can’t keep them on the move like this, but I’d like to be able to carry one around anyway.”

 

As Jester drew the pastel pink and purple and green orchid over Cad’s heart, she let his heavy voice fall into her mind like stones throughout their conversation. Actually, she barely even talked to him at all, actually. His voice was the only thing that seemed to make her mind slow down and sometimes, it was fun to not always have her thoughts racing, racing, racing. He told her about the Wildmother and about running a graveyard and about all the different kinds of teas he’d grown from dead people.

 

When she handed him a mirror, Caduceus smiled in his usual, vague way. “Oh, that’s nice, Jester. Thank you. I’m going to head down to the kitchens now.”

 

“Okayyyyy Ca _du_ ceus. But let me know if you want another one. Oh! Maybe a really scary one, like, on your _face_!”

 

“Maybe another time,” he said and patted her on the head as he left. She wondered if the Traveller had noticed the little poop she’d put in the leaves. She’d _definitely_ tell him about it in her sketchbook.

 

Fjord’s was so simple it was almost _boooooring_ , but Jester had said she would give tattoos, so she did. Plus, maybe it would make Fjord like her if she gave him his boring wave armband tattoo instead of the really cool parrot one she had designed and told him would look really, _really_ good on his neck.

 

“That’s mighty kind of you to draw that for me, Jester, but I think the waves will suit me just fine.”

 

“Ugh, fine, just be _bo_ ring then. Beau is more fun than youuuu.”

 

He squirmed all throughout her work, but the praise he gave her when it was done was worth having to call Yasha over to hold him still.

 

Yasha already had a lot of her own tattoos, mostly from her people in Xorhas or about storms and stuff, but she asked Jester to do something for Molly. Jester almost put a dick on her arm, because Molly would have agreed with her that it was _soooo_ funny, but then she put a pair of tiefling horns silhouetted by the moon instead because she thought of the idea and it was too good not to do.

 

“Isn’t it the best one that I could have done ever?” she asked, watching Yasha delicately run her fingers over her bicep.

 

“Yeah,” Yasha said in her soft voice. She didn’t say anything else, but Jester gave her a big hug anyway. She knew from the Traveller that sometimes people said a lot when they weren’t using words at all and she was pretty sure she knew what Yasha was saying.

 

Nott surprised Jester almost as much as Caduceus when she came in.

 

“Ohmygod, _Nott_ , do you want a tattoo of _Cayleb_? I could put his face right on your hand!”

 

“No, don’t be weird,” Nott told her, taking a big swig from her flask as her eyes darted all over the room. “I just want… I want something to remember you all by. You know. Cause I care about you and… stuff.”

 

“Nott,” squealed Jester, wrapping the little goblin up in a hug. “I have the perfect thing. Just wait, you’re going to love it _so much_.”

 

Nott was the _best_ , she was so drunk that she didn’t squirm at _all_ and Jester got her idea perfect. Just above her left hip, Jester drew two daggers, crossed at the hilts and pointing down. One said “Mighty” and the other said “Nein.”

 

“Because we would all stab someone for you, Nott!” Jester declared proudly as she finished her last line.

 

“I’ll kill anyone who touches any of you! Where are they! Lemme at ‘em!”

 

Jester calmly ducked Nott’s wildly flailing crossbow and nudged her back up onto deck and in the direction of one of their harried crewmen, giggling from the shadows as she watched the small goblin chase Marius around the deck with her crossbow still drawn and yelling “Lemme at him!”

 

“That was a good thing you did.” Caleb’s soft Zemnian accent came from the shadows beside her.

 

“Ohmygod, Cayleb, you _scared_ me!” Jester turned to see their wizard, and could just barely make out the fond smile on his face as he, too, watched Nott menacing their crew. “What do you mean?”

 

Caleb’s pause was long. Jester, even used to how long Caleb often took to collect his thoughts and word things the way he wanted, bounced on her toes impatiently.

 

“Nott didn’t have people for a very long time. And then she only had me, and well.” His features twisted in a self-deprecating smile. “I am not always so good at being around for her like I should, _ja_? But then this group of assholes comes along and picks us up… We have each other’s backs, the lot of us. I’m glad Nott has a reminder of that. She deserves it.”

 

“Do you want one tooooo? You and Nott could match! It would be so _cute_!”

 

Caleb finally turned his small smile to her. “Thank you, no. You know I remember things very well. I do not think I need the reminder of you all around on my body.”

 

Jester pouted. “But _Cayleb_ , everyone else let me give them a tattoo! You need one toooooo! I _promise_ I won’t even put _any_ dicks in it.”

 

Caleb hesitated again, watching thoughtfully as Marius climbed up the mast to get away from Nott, like a treed cat. _Definitely_ something to draw in her sketchbook later.

 

“There is, maybe, one thing I would have,” Caleb admitted. Jester clapped her hands eagerly.

 

An hour later, Caleb walked away, rubbing his shoulder and wincing, after clapping Jester on her own shoulder. She was still put out that he wouldn’t tell her _why_ the tattoo he wanted was of a melting clock, but maybe she could catch him in zone of truth later, if she convinced everyone to play truth or dare...

 


End file.
